| July 01, 2006 | Saturday | Jumadi-ul-Sani 4, 1427 |
To send a letter to the Editor
Click here
World Bank loan
PTCL performance
Security for army officers
Rent increase
Retirement age
Is Mumbai too rude?
Daughters’ killer and the cop
CED on necessities
Retd
Shahrah-i-Liaquat
THIS has reference to your editorial ‘Bettering the lot of the disabled’ (June 8) and the letter of Mr Munawar Ali Rajput on the same subject (June 19).
There are 600 million children below the age of 18 in the world who are disabled. Eighty per cent of them are from developing countries. Only two per cent are receiving training and education of some kind.
In Pakistan, according to WHO figures, there are 4.2 million physically disabled persons owing to polio. It is encouraging that nationwide campaigns are in progress for complete eradication of polio. Deafness and dumbness account for another 4.2 million persons. There is no mention of the blind in these figures. Mentally handicapped persons are estimated at 2.5 million. However, this is considered a very low estimate.
The mentally handicapped persons are estimated at least five million. Iodine deficiency is considered a major cause of brain damage. As such, there is need to address this problem in right earnest. Indeed, one cannot too strongly emphasise the importance of spreading awareness of the problem of iodine deficiency and for ensuring availability and use of iodine, iodized salt, etc., in areas known for iodine deficiency and in families suffering from iodine deficiency.
Disabilities can occur on other accounts also. Their numbers increase with the increase in the population. The recent earthquake which struck Azad Kashmir and some parts of the NWFP must also have added large numbers of the disabled to the population. All told, at least 10 per cent of our population falls in the category of the disabled. If our population is 150 million, the disabled account for 15 million persons.
With the increase taking place in the number of the disabled, it may be difficult for the economy to keep on bearing their burden. It is time therefore that gravity of the situation is realised and remedial measures are adopted as soon as possible to bring the population of the disabled into the mainstream of the economy so that they become productive and are no longer a burden.
The letter of Mr Munawar Ali Rajput has spilled the beans. He says that he belongs to the community of the disabled known as ‘special’ and that although he did his B.A. in international relations from the University of Sindh with an extra qualification in computers, he has not been able to get a job. He also tried to raise funds for setting up own business but without any success. It is obvious that national polices by the government providing two per cent job quota and other welfare measures for the disabled have not been of any help. Dawn’s editorial has also highlighted the problem arising out of non-availability of jobs for the disabled.
Based on the standard rules formulated and circulated by the UN during its ‘Decade for the Disabled’ from 1981 to 1990, Pakistan should enact legislation to achieve a breakthrough to assimilate the so far neglected community of the disabled in mainstream society. We need to increase job quotas for the disabled as has been done in India. Like them, specific job quotas should be fixed for various disabilities. In order to have an equitable distribution of job quotas among various disabilities, it is suggested that the job quota is increased from two per cent to four per cent.
Other measures should include setting up of shelter homes for the disabled so that their own families can be relieved of their burden. Institutions like Baitul Maal and Zakat Foundation can help set up shelter homes. Training and education facilities need to be provided to one and all in the disabled community. This would require allocation of adequate funds, effective legislation, shelter homes, community involvement, intense programmes of education and training, health measures, proper environment for working and reorganisation in society. This is a big challenge. It is for the nation to decide if it wants to go on ignoring it or face it and accept the challenge.
MOHAMMAD ANWAR KHAN
Karachi
THIS refers to Ms Zehra Wasim Khan’s letter ‘World Bank loan’ (June 26), describing the government’s jubilation on receiving $6.5 billion World Bank loan. The governments in Pakistan have been always happy to receive foreign loans/grants for obvious reasons.
But as usual the loan amount would be mismanaged or rather embezzled, the bureaucracy, consultants and the contractors shall be richer and the services for which the loan has been taken shall not be any better. For example, after receiving the ADB loan of $350 million for ‘access to justice’ in 2001, the ‘access to justice’ is not any better today; or take the case of European Commission Euro 25.942 million for national strengthening of livestock services project. The EC believes that the money has gone into wrong pockets, and has started a probe into the financial scam (Dawn, May 9).
The foreign financial institutions are eager to lend (because idle money is a loss) and ruling elites, mostly corrupt elements, in Third World countries are equally eager to grab the loans/grants. Therefore, in collusion, they invent projects which do not have any relevance to the ground requirement. Take a case of $2 million ADB grant for ‘flour enrichment’ project (Dawn, June 14) for the poor, to reduce anaemia and folic acid deficiencies. But the poor do not have enough flour for two square meals a day for the family, and the government is going for the flour enrichment. The government is also seeking an assistance grant worth $25 million from the the WB and the ADB to deal with bird flu crises (Dawn, May 9).
We are already in debt of $38 billion (or how it is $36.6 billion?). The governments shall continue taking more loans, unmindful of the consequences of the coming generations. There is no one to stop them unless the Supreme Court takes suo motu notice of the situation.
ABDUL SAMAD KHAN
Karachi
WHEN people make calls from one landline telephone number to another landline telephone number, or from one landline telephone number to any cellular phone network, they have to make repeated attempts as calls do not get through in one attempt. This is because all PTCL lines very often remain chocked because there are more cellphone users than the PTCL circuits can manage.
Whenever any cellular phone number is dialled from a PTCL landline, a repeated recording in English and Urdu is heard, saying: “All lines are busy at the moment, please try later. Thank you”.
Can the PTCL chief tell subscribers in Karachi that how many times one has to make attempts to make a simple telephone call? Is there any limit or not? Once, twice, five times, 10, 20 or 50 times, or even more? Is this the way the PTCL works? Can this situation be avoided?
The present setup of the PTCL in Karachi is that we have a director-general (Sindh and Balochistan), who sits in the Clifton area, and then we have general managers looking after affairs of each region. In addition to this, we have an army of directors, divisional engineers, assistant engineers and sub-divisional officers and so on.
The unfortunate part of inadequate telephone circuits is that in case a telephone subscriber would like to get in touch with a family member who has gone out and has a cellular phone connection, how he or she can be contacted during an emergency?
The government should take note of all PTCL personnel who are directly responsible for improving and upgrading the telephone service in Karachi and have not been able to perform their duties diligently.
The minimum punishment for such people is that their annual increments should be stopped forthwith, until such time that an ordinary telephone subscriber gets relief from the agony which he or she suffers by dialling one telephone number repeatedly but all of the exercise and drill become futile when the subscriber listens to repeated PTCL recorded message: “All lines are busy at the moment, please try later. Thank you”.
A similar example of such service cannot be found in any other telecommunications company anywhere in the world.
SYED A. MATEEN
Karachi
THIS has reference to Mr Masood Khan’s letter “Security for army officers” (June 27). Unfortunately the issue does not end there, nowadays all the so-called VVIPS, including army officers and police officers, want to be escorted by security. It is not a security problem but a matter of ego; even the Rangers have joined the rat race.
A friend of mine told me about an incident where he and some of his colleagues went to Hawkes Bay for a picnic. Upon reaching there they saw a deployment of Rangers jawans who had cordoned off around five to 10 huts and they were not allowing anyone access. Worried that there might be a dangerous situation developing, my friend inquired and was told that “Colonel Sahib ki family picnic mana rahi hae, tum log yehan sae chale jao”.
Anyone who works on I.I. Chundrigar Road has seen what happens when the SPs or the DIG leave from the CPO there, escorted by three or four mobile vans with their sirens blaring. Mr Masood’s suggestion to create another army to protect this one will not work as the new army will also need protection.
I have a solution. If army generals, the SPs and the DIGs are so scared of the common folk who they are supposed to protect, then they should resign and stay at home and let someone else do the job. The army, police and other agencies are there to protect the people, not the other way around.
YASIR JUMANI
Karachi
AS a former member of the federal government’s Evacuee Trust Property Board from Sindh, I fully sympathise with the tenants who are being subjected to an onerous increase in the annual rent, in violation of the board’s rules.
My advice to the tenants is to challenge the unjust increase in rent in proper courts of law and also petition the rent review authority in the board.
There is no doubt that most of the evacuee trust property units are in a dilapidated condition and deserve to be auctioned to the highest bidders. Most of the building structures are badly affected but the land sites are expensive.
The board was set up by the federal government under the Liaquat-Nehru agreement in the early post-partition years. The federal government should look into the current legal status and working of the board and find out what is the current condition of its counterpart in India.
QUTUBUDDIN AZIZ
Karachi
THIS is with reference to Mr Shamim Ahmed’s letter on ‘Retirement age’ (June 29). I agree with the writer’s point of view. Not only should the retirement age be reconsidered, but also, in spite of a person reaching that age, his physical health should be examined. If the results are clear to a certain agreeable extent, the employee should be allowed to work even further on a contract basis, as their experience is more valuable for the institutions.
SABILA SHOAB
Karachi
HAS Mumbai city become too rude? A recent Reader’s Digest survey says so. But we, the people of Mumbai, can’t digest this observation. Ever since the survey has been out, there have been a number of conversations discussing and debating rudeness.
A small sample of a few people who didn’t bother to pick a paper or a few shopkeepers who forgot to say thank you to their customers can at best be an observation, an aberration but not a judgment on the attitude of Mumbai citizens in general. That we are neither impolite and nor do we have bad attitudes is manifested in innumerable instances, which the survey has completely ignored. Needless to say, the survey was totally westernised. Just because people don’t say “thank you” all the time in India doesn’t mean they are not good to each other.
The survey does not take into account the various nuances of different cultures and their customs. We would rather help each other in difficult circumstances like the 26/7 deluge rather than being sweet and exchanging pleasantries. For us helping each other is a way of life than a formality.
We can’t go on saying sorry to fellow commuters for pushing and shoving them in heavily crowed buses and trains. There are planks screaming “Thank you for visiting us” at most of the shops in Mumbai. Shouldn’t that suffice? Or is a personal thank you needed for not being considered rude. Neither the customer nor the shopkeeper is doing any favour to each other while buying or selling, so why should a thank you become a necessity?
And if a some people are being rude, then it’s a facet of their life and so the rudeness tag can’t be thrust on the whole populace. For some rude people, being rude and tough is becoming the way to get things done these days. The adults are the problem and although some children are being taught good manners and respect, some others are not.
The adults should think about their own behaviour and what they are modelling to our progeny and young generations. We must not allow rudeness to replace good manners and reverence to others. And due to a few stray examples of rude people, publications like the Reader’s Digest get a chance to point fingers at us.
AMJAD K. MARUF
Mumbai, India
A factory worker killed his three minor daughters because he feared he would not be able to raise them honourably because of poverty. He was then shot by a policeman to whom he had confessed to the crime.
The way Dawn displayed the news shows Dawn is truly a national paper. The rulers and high-ups should not miss the message the news item gives to them. They should awaken themselves to the agonizing conditions in which a large percentage of our population lives. While giving figures about the booming economy and the increase in GNP and per capita income, they should tell us whether those figures concern industrial giants and business tycoons or whether the common man is better off.
At present, labour cost in Pakistan is low, because we pay so little to workers that they can hardly manage two square meals a day. We industrialists and businessmen should, therefore, offer them better salaries to enable them to meet their basic needs. In addition allowance should be made for illness and other emergencies.
One should not also forget the DIG’s guard who shot the daughters’ killer. The former was motivated not by any selfish considerations but because of anger over what the man had done. He thus put his wife, children and career at stake. Leaving the guard to his fate according to law, I appeal to the provincial government to make necessary financial provisions for his wife and children. Philanthropists, especially those of Lahore, should also come forward.
MUHAMMAD RAFI
Karachi
THE month of June beckons with problems for almost everyone relating to paying taxes for the ending fiscal year and worrying about newer ones about to be implemented in the next fiscal. The Central Board of Revenue after milking taxpayers in the name of general sales tax, which has helped to fuel inflation during FY06, is now using central excise duty as a tool to deprive us of an easy life.
According to understanding, excise duties are used to “tax goods/services having an inelastic demand curve and, in some cases, to discourage particular behaviour”. Hence by this definition, excise duty on cigarettes, alcohol, fuel and certain luxury items seems logical. What baffles me, however, is to find out that vehicle tracking services shall also be charged a 15 per cent CED in FY07. May I ask the CBR whether vehicle tracking is a luxury or a necessity. Considering the high number of carjacking and car-lifting that take place in urban centres, it is very much a necessity for anyone who can afford to use it. This duty would have seemed logical if carjackigs were to be eliminated through an effective law and order system in the country.
Instead of focusing on taxing individuals and corporations directly, the CBR is hell bent on taxing the end consumers. On the one hand, measures like giving tax holidays to investors and reducing tax rates on certain sectors are creating tax havens and, on the other, the consumers are likely to suffer further.
Whose door should we knock? On the one hand, we are hearing of great growth from our government and, on the other, cut motions against budgetary measures are being introduced by the government and steamrolled by the treasury benches in the National Assembly, without debate.
ALI WAHAB
Karachi
In the US and the UK it is a common practice for generals, colonels, judges, presidents and senators to use their ranks/titles in retirement. It identifies and encapsulates their backgrounds and bestows a level of respect in society.
In Pakistan we are mandated to use ‘retd’ before or after our ranks. This is a legacy of Field Marshal Ayub Khan who, when peeved at the temerity of Air Marshal Asghar Khan in opposing him politically, had this law enacted to ensure the media used the derogatory “retired Air Marshal.....”.
Of course, field marshals never retire; they just fade away.
REAR ADMIRAL (r) HASAN M. ANSARI
Karachi
THIS is apropos to Mr Faisal Siddiqui’s letter in which he has suggested that the media should not mention the ranks of retired military personnel. I would like to clarify that no armed forces person insists on using their rank with their name. This is an honour which is achieved by a person after giving up their days and nights for the defence of the country.
While others are enjoying sound sleep, most of armed forces personnel are awake in far-flung deserted areas to provide security from enemy. Some soldiers are in the red-hot deserts while some are stationed on glaciers. Even after retirement soldiers remain on the active service list for a considerable period of time so that they can be recalled when required. It is not worthy of any Pakistani to pass any remarks on the defenders of this country.
COMMANDER M. ALI
Pakistan Navy Karachi
I WOULD like to invite Karachi Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal to pay a visit and see for himself the condition of Karachi’s busiest road, namely Shahrah-i-Liaquat, formerly known as Frere Road.
Situated in the heart of the city, it is a very important road. It runs parallel to I.I. Chundrigar Road and M.A. Jinnah Road. Starting at Sindh Islamia Hotel at the city post office, it ends at Abdullah Haroon Road in front of the Odeon Centre and near the Saddar post office.
It was once a very well-maintained road and the third longest road of Karachi, after Bunder Road and Lawrence Road.
Many important business concerns like Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry are situated along this road.
In spite of its being an important thoroughfare, the road is in a dilapidated condition. Yet due to the indifference of the civil administration no one bothers to take any action in this regard. The same is the condition of Burnes Road, now called Mohammad Bin Qasim Road, from Jang Press to Fresco Chowk.
G. M. BALOCH
Karachi
You can also send letters to the Editor
Just send your message to the following address: letters@dawn.com
Make sure you include your full name, postal address, e-mail address, and in the case of Pakistan your day-time telephone number.